LPGA Golf tournament leaves Portland

[ripvanwinkle]

The affects of the homeless problem here -LPGA Golf tournament leaves Portland after 30 years due to safety concerns. The city has a big problem with the homeless. I believe some other big group moved or canceled their event.

www.oregonlive.com/sports/2021/06/portland-classic-golf-tournament-moves-to-the-suburbs-citing-safety-concerns-in-the-city.html

[djAdvocate]

homelessness is a serious issue all over the west coast.

maybe if we paid a living wage it would not be.

[pulmonarymd]

It is also a big problem in those with psychiatric illnesses. A large number of patients with schizophrenia, depression, and substance abuse disorders are homeless. Closing long term psychiatric institutions without building the infrastructure necessary to support these individuals exacerbated the problem. Requires us to come up with a plan and funds for them. But that is impossible in our current political stalemate.

[happyhoix]

Jun 23, 2021 12:05:04 GMT -5 pulmonarymd said:

It is also a big problem in those with psychiatric illnesses. A large number of patients with schizophrenia, depression, and substance abuse disorders are homeless. Closing long term psychiatric institutions without building the infrastructure necessary to support these individuals exacerbated the problem. Requires us to come up with a plan and funds for them. But that is impossible in our current political stalemate.

Yes. I read a really tragic report of an older woman with delusions who got picked up and held a few days. Her daughter asked to be called when her mother was released, but she wasn’t. Her mom walked out of town to someone’s summer house. She broke in and lived there for several weeks, eating what little was in the house, then eating old apples that had fallen in the yard. She found a notebook and wrote compulsively about how she was waiting for her husband to bring groceries home. The owner of the house found her corpse when they came back the next spring to open the house for the season. Unfortunately if you have MI to the point you can’t work, and no money to fall back on, but you aren’t violent or suicidal, you get dumped back onto the city streets pretty quickly.

For what some people claim is the greatest country in the world, that’s shitty.

[dondub]

www.seattletimes.com/author/danny-westneat/

The first opinion is from today’s Seattle Times about the disappearance of low end housing. There is another homelessness article that follows.



en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_Health_Systems_Act_of_1980
Reagan’s cancellation of Carter’s bill started the eradication of shelters and mental health outreach etc. Thus the two pronged assault on housing and help has left us with this imbroglio.

The west coast cities, with the more mild winters and summers than red state areas, are a magnet for survivability on the streets.

[bean29]

Jun 23, 2021 12:05:04 GMT -5 pulmonarymd said:

It is also a big problem in those with psychiatric illnesses. A large number of patients with schizophrenia, depression, and substance abuse disorders are homeless. Closing long term psychiatric institutions without building the infrastructure necessary to support these individuals exacerbated the problem. Requires us to come up with a plan and funds for them. But that is impossible in our current political stalemate.

The city of Milwaukee has been under a Federal order for 30-40 years to provide group housing for the Mentally Ill Population.  They closed the old County Run Mental Health facility with the understanding that other treatment/housing would be provided.  There is a law that says the Mentally Ill have the right to refuse treatment and there is a 5th standard in the law it used to say if a patient was a danger to themselves or others they could be involuntarily committed.  I was unaware that WI has updated it, so that they say if a patient is unaware they are ill and will be helped by treatment, they can be committed and treated without their consent.


mentalillnesspolicy.org/ivc/dangerousness-standard-wisconsin.html

These laws should also apply to people who are addicted to drugs or alcohol, but we all know they do nada.  My personal opinion has been for years that the officials refused to force treatment on this population b/c they they would have to pay for it, and all they do is defund stuff so they can reduce taxes.

The link mentions Alberta Lessard.  Reading about her life and her struggles with Mental Illness and getting treatment are fascinating, but I don't have time to look right now for links.  When she got older, the Police Chief from the City of West Allis, WI ended up advocating for her quite a bit.  He would check in on her regularly in a non-official capacity.  Often Law enforcement will deal with the mentally ill as if they are criminals.  They are sick.  They may or may not need hospitalization.  ETA.  The former West Allis Police Chief had a background in working with the Mentally ill, so he responded in a very effective and caring way. 

When law enforcement encounters a mentally ill individual and they are not aware of the person's history, it can go bad - as what happened in Red Arrow Square Park when a Starbucks Employee called the police b/c a homeless person was sleeping on a bench in the park.  He ended up dead, and lots of people were very disturbed by how it was handled.  Many people feel he died b/c of his race, I personally think it was more about Police not knowing the best ways to deal with mentally ill people.  Red Arrow Park is a very nice urban park.  It is at the base of a 10 story and 4 story corporate headquarters building for a fortune 500 company.  The company pays for the landscape maintenance in the park or at least they used to.  There is an ice rink in the park in the winter, and Starbucks is in the Park Building where you rent the skates, change into your skates and warm up etc.  Just describing this to let people know that Starbucks and the Park are integrally related.  The Milwaukee County Parks System gets some very good revenue from Starbucks for the leasing agreement.  

archive.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/milwaukee-officer-in-fatal-red-arrow-park-shooting-has-been-fired-b99371931z1-279330932.html

We seriously need to be building some sort of transitional or group home type of housing like old fashioned rooming houses for these people.  We should not have to wait until the homeless encampments are so large they push everyone else out of the area.

[djAdvocate]

the lack of treatment for substance abuse is also a serious problem.

[Opti]

Jun 23, 2021 14:36:59 GMT -5 bean29 said:

Jun 23, 2021 12:05:04 GMT -5 pulmonarymd said:

It is also a big problem in those with psychiatric illnesses. A large number of patients with schizophrenia, depression, and substance abuse disorders are homeless. Closing long term psychiatric institutions without building the infrastructure necessary to support these individuals exacerbated the problem. Requires us to come up with a plan and funds for them. But that is impossible in our current political stalemate.

The city of Milwaukee has been under a Federal order for 30-40 years to provide group housing for the Mentally Ill Population.  They closed the old County Run Mental Health facility with the understanding that other treatment/housing would be provided.  There is a law that says the Mentally Ill have the right to refuse treatment and there is a 5th standard in the law it used to say if a patient was a danger to themselves or others they could be involuntarily committed.  I was unaware that WI has updated it, so that they say if a patient is unaware they are ill and will be helped by treatment, they can be committed and treated without their consent.


mentalillnesspolicy.org/ivc/dangerousness-standard-wisconsin.html

These laws should also apply to people who are addicted to drugs or alcohol, but we all know they do nada.  My personal opinion has been for years that the officials refused to force treatment on this population b/c they they would have to pay for it, and all they do is defund stuff so they can reduce taxes.

The link mentions Alberta Lessard.  Reading about her life and her struggles with Mental Illness and getting treatment are fascinating, but I don't have time to look right now for links.  When she got older, the Police Chief from the City of West Allis, WI ended up advocating for her quite a bit.  He would check in on her regularly in a non-official capacity.  Often Law enforcement will deal with the mentally ill as if they are criminals.  They are sick.  They may or may not need hospitalization.  ETA.  The former West Allis Police Chief had a background in working with the Mentally ill, so he responded in a very effective and caring way. 

When law enforcement encounters a mentally ill individual and they are not aware of the person's history, it can go bad - as what happened in Red Arrow Square Park when a Starbucks Employee called the police b/c a homeless person was sleeping on a bench in the park.  He ended up dead, and lots of people were very disturbed by how it was handled.  Many people feel he died b/c of his race, I personally think it was more about Police not knowing the best ways to deal with mentally ill people.  Red Arrow Park is a very nice urban park.  It is at the base of a 10 story and 4 story corporate headquarters building for a fortune 500 company.  The company pays for the landscape maintenance in the park or at least they used to.  There is an ice rink in the park in the winter, and Starbucks is in the Park Building where you rent the skates, change into your skates and warm up etc.  Just describing this to let people know that Starbucks and the Park are integrally related.  The Milwaukee County Parks System gets some very good revenue from Starbucks for the leasing agreement.  

archive.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/milwaukee-officer-in-fatal-red-arrow-park-shooting-has-been-fired-b99371931z1-279330932.html

We seriously need to be building some sort of transitional or group home type of housing like old fashioned rooming houses for these people.  We should not have to wait until the homeless encampments are so large they push everyone else out of the area.

I totally disagree with Wisconsin's updated law and would not live there now because of it. Diabetes causes huge expense to businesses and public health. Should we mandate a minimum standard of healthcare for people if they don't manage their diabetes? Clearly then right now Wisconsin should be mandating that the Covid vaccine is required due to the pandemic. The people who die of blood clots & heart conditions will be just necessary losses, right? It will just be like lifetime Tardive dyskinesia. If you get the bad one where you might swallow your tongue, well that's a risk other people are willing to take to not be a afraid of you.

Almost all mandated mental health laws push the cost on to the affected individual entirely. This is why there are so many medical BKs and its not just for mental health. Did you know, for heart issues, most states including Wisconsin mandate life-saving procedures whether you can afford it or not. Pacemaker insertions and replacements are not cheap if you are uninsured, and No, they do not write it off. I have a very good childhood friend that has been under that burden. In fact his plan for when the next replacement was due, was try to be somewhere that they could not get to him in time and just die. 

Yes there is a huge need everywhere in the US for housing that people in the bottom 40% can afford. Some of it will need to be subsidized by state and local governments at the minimum. And if you start giving psych drugs to every person who has a UTI and altered mental status, you are going to be wasting money, time, and people's lives. (Treat the UTI, the problem disappears. I don't get why I haven't yet gotten people to understand that's how my sinus infections work for me.  )